Skepticism

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Yesterday was a long, busy day of driving, ferrying offspring about, and I listened to a lot of NPR. All I heard, over and over again, was talk about Henry Paulson and his new position as Treasury Secretary. Not a contrary word was spoken: I heard all about his pro-environmental stance (good, but I don’t see how the Treasury Secretary’s opinion on a subject outside his responsibility was going to help), and there was much vague handwaving about how he was a feather in the Bush administration’s cap. There was nothing about what his position on economic issues was, which was a little weird.

My one thought all the time Paulson’s praises were being sung on that mouthpiece of the liberal media was, “If he’s so brilliant and impressive, what the heck is he doing signing on with the most incompetent administration ever? Why wasn’t anyone saying anything about his actual qualifications, other than chanting ‘Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs’?”

Score one for the blogosphere. Max dares to be critical. Now if only our media would put something of substance together.

I keep hearing this “stock market up” mantra from Bush and his minions, and I keep saying to myself “and that’s good for whom, exactly?” It’s good for the decreasing number of people who actually have pensions, it’s good for the brokers, and it’s good for Bush’s base, but who else does it benefit? I mean, yeah, I’ve got an IRA, but I had one in 2000 too, and its value dropped by 50% when the dot com boom collapsed (stupid “conservative” fund managers). How many people live their lives based on what the market does?

theRidger, I’m glad you’re sending money to Doctors without Borders. People around here rarely talk about real charity giving. It’s all about feeling good forcing other people at the point of a gun to give their money to the charity of your choice.

FYI – I listen to a lot of NPR. Last night during “Market Place” with Kai Risdal, they had a nice bit with an old classmate of Mr. Paulson )who used to be in the Clinton administration). It was not very “Pro-Paulson”, more like “He is a non-factor” in getting this economy on track.

But I agree that in the last 10 years, NPR has gotten ‘softer’. At least the jazz music at night is good!